


a sky made of stars

by orphan_account



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Getting Together, How Do I Tag, M/M, but not really, but not really again, idk how to tag this, no clear plot tbh, this is boring im sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-09-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:20:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26461816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: "Excuse me, that's my spot." Mark tries to act brave as he walks to the boy, standing over him. He's wearing a white shirt, bright against the dark grass, and dark trousers, which seem to be torn. He notices the boy is barefoot, confusing him even further.The boy smiles, and Mark thinks his heart stops."This may be your spot Mark, but this is my forest." the boy's voice is sweet. Mark could listen to it forever.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Comments: 1
Kudos: 33





	a sky made of stars

**Author's Note:**

> ik the constellations mentioned probably cant be seen at the same time but just imagine they're in some unspecified place. constructive criticism is appreciated bc ik this is shit.  
> my original idea was like 500 words but ok

Mark likes to watch the stars. Every night, except when it rains, he goes through the back door, past the garden, and into the dense forest behind their house. There's a clearing, after about a two-minute walk, that he had found when they first moved. It's a perfect spot, just to lie down, listen to the cicadas and name all the constellations he can.

It's a Monday night, and Mark is walking to the clearing when he hears some shuffling. There's a person there, but as far as he knows, no-one knows about this place. Hiding behind a tree, he tries to see who's in the clearing. There's a boy there, lying on his back, hands behind his head.

"Excuse me, that's my spot." Mark tries to act brave as he walks to the boy, standing over him. He's wearing a white shirt, bright against the dark grass, and dark trousers, which seem to be torn. He notices the boy is barefoot, confusing him even further.

The boy smiles, and Mark thinks his heart stops.

"This may be your spot Mark, but this is my forest." the boy's voice is sweet. Mark could listen to it forever.

"How did you know my name? Who are you?" The boy sits up, leaning back on his hands.

"Don't ask questions you don't want the answer to, Mark. Come on, you like the stars, don't you?" The boy lies back down, patting the space beside him. Mark is still confused, but he lies down beside the boy and watches the stars with him.

\--

The boy is there again the next day, and he tells Mark to call him Haechan. They lie in silence, and Mark tries to name the constellations he knows. Scorpius, Orion, Lyra. Mark turns to Haechan, scanning his profile. Haechan is beautiful, and Mark has no doubts about that. He names more constellations: Leo, Ursa Minor, Capricornus.

Haechan isn't in the clearing on Wednesday. Neither is he on Thusday, yet Mark keeps going to the clearing. Hoping the boy with deep brown hair is there.

The next time Mark sees Haechan is on a Friday, and Mark is supposed to be writing an essay on A Midsummer Night's Dream. He tells Haechan this.

"Shakespeare right?" Mark nods. "I never really liked him, always acted like he was better than everyone."

Mark furrows his eyebrows and turns to the other boy, "You've met Shakespeare?"

"I've met a lot of people, Mark." Haechan turns to Mark, smiling. He decides not to pry further. keeping in mind what Haechan had said when they first met.

An hour later, Mark gets up and waves to Haechan as he walks away.

Haechan doesn't even turn to him.

\--

The next two nights they spend in silence. Mark likes it, he gets time to think, and to stare at Haechan. He probably notices, but Mark doesn't really care, memorizing every curve, every line, on Haechan's face.

On Monday, Mark decides to begin a coversation.

"Jaemin told a joke during lunch earlier. Jeno laughed so much milk came out his nose." He chuckles at the memory, looking at Haechan again. Jaemin told a joke about some cows, and Jeno was the only one who laughed. When milk shot out of his nose, Chenle began laughing too, getting the attention of half the cafeteria.

"Are they your friends?" Haechan turns to Mark, and he feels his heart stopping again. Why does it keep doing that?

"Yeah, they are."

"Tell me about your friends, Mark." So he does. He tells Haechan of Jaemin and Jeno, how they've been on the edges of 'just friends' for years. He talks about Renjun, and how he pretends to be cold-blooded but has notebooks full of Moomin doodles. He talks about Jisung, the dance prodigy, and of Chenle, the sweet Chinese kid that loves to talk. When he finishes his little speech, Haechan smiles.

"You love them a lot, don't you?"

"I do." Mark turns his head back to the sky, cheeks red and trying and failing to get Haechan's smile out of his thoughts, he hopes he can see Haechan in the sun one day, he would look so beautiful. He names the constellations he can see, Casseiopeia, Ursa Major, Sagitarrius.

\--

The next day, Mark finds Haechan in the clearing again, and he finally has the courage to ask a question he's had since they met. Once he lies down beside the boy, he turns to him.

"Haechan?" the said boy turns to Mark, "where are you from?"

Haechan smiles. It's a smile full of sadness. Full of lies and promises unfulfilled. Full of pain and regrets."Far away, Mark. It'll take lifetimes to get there." He turns back to the sky, and so does Mark.

"Alright, I guess." He taps his foot to the beat of some song from the radio. "How old are you? I'm eighteen."

"I don't know. Honestly." Mark thinks he sees a tear make its way down Haechan's face. "I've been here a long time."

\--

It's Tuesday again, and this time, Haechan speaks first.

"You're not from here either," Haechan turns to him, "And Mark isn't your real name."

"How would you know?" Mark asks.

"I know lots of things. Too many, some would say. And I know I'm not wrong."

"Uhm. . . I moved here when I was thirteen, I was born in Canada, and my real name is Minhyung, but I don't really like it."

"Nothing wrong with names, Mark. Haechan isn't my real name either." he doesn't say anything else, and Mark knows better than to ask. Instead, he tells Haechan about a book he's been reading; 1984, by George Orwell. Haechan nods along as he talks about the book, set in a dystopian future, where the government can see everything, hear everything. Haechan mentions that the stars can see everything too.

When Mark gets up to leave that night, Haechan says goodbye.

\--

It goes on for months. Haechan is always there before Mark, as if he never leaves the clearing. Mark will tell him about his day, while the other nods at appropriate moments. Sometimes, Haechan will make a comment, like how he used to hang around in Paris while the Eiffel tower was being built, or how Julius Caesar deserved that stabbing. Mark doesn't even ask. he talks about his friends, his brother, school, the places he wants to see and the places he's been. He tells Haechan about how sometimes he feels like he's dissolving, like only bits of him are still on Earth.

"I know how you feel, Mark." Haechan had replied, "I've been dissolving for eons."

Eventually, Haechan tell his own stories too, like how Haechan was what the first person he loved called him. Maybe a lover, or a friend; Mark doesn't ask, he never does. The sun-kissed boy talks about Japan, how it's always beautiful in Spring, he talks about the colors he's seen, the people he's met. But Haechan never talks about himself. Always about other people, other places, other things.

\--

"You, are an enigma." Mark declares one night. Haechan laughs, it sounds beautiful to Mark, it always does.

"Did you just learn that word, Markie?" Haechan's been calling him that for days now, it makes Mark's heart leap everytime.

"No, but I just learned that it applies to you." Haechan nods in agreement, and Mark tries to move closer. The boy beside him is truly an enigma. Mark has tried to understand him, but every explanation he's come up with just doesn't _work_. _At least_ , Mark thinks, _I can list five facts about him_.

When he gets home that night, he makes a list:

_What I know about Haechan_

  1. _He's either very old or very good at history_
  2. _He's always barefoot (????)_
  3. _He has five moles on his face_
  4. _Haechan is very pretty_
  5. _I hardly know anything about him_



\--

"I think I'm in love with you." Mark says to the sky, though he's directing the statement at the boy beside him. Haechan laughs, and Mark thinks that what angels sound like.

"You can't love what you don't know, Mark." Haechan turns to Mark, crawling to hover over him. "And we could never be together."

Mark fogets how to speak for a moment. This is the closest he's been to Haechan and his heart is trying to leap out of his chest. "Why not? We're together right now."

"You're a child of the Earth, I'm a child of the Stars, this isn't some Shakespearean play."

"At least say you love me back." Rather than speak more, Haechan leans down, pressing their lips together. It lasts a split second, but to Mark, it feels like an eternity. Haechan pulls away, standing up and walking into the forest without looking back, his feet are still bare.

\--

Two weeks go by and Haechan doesn't return, meanwhile, Mark decides to tell his friends about the boy in the forest. The six of them are sitting in the cafeteria, like they always do, when Mark tells them about the boy.

"Wait, so he just appeared out of nowhere?" Jeno asks once Mark finished his story. Mark nods slowly, only now realizing the absurdity of everything. "And you never bothered to ask him where he's from?" Mark shook his head.

Jisung finally speaks up, "He's from the stars. That's what he said right?"

"Are you saying he's an alien?" Renjun laughs, "That's dumb." Jisung shrugs and goes back to eating his pudding cup while Renjun goes on about the newest conspiracy theory he's read.

Now that he thinks of it, Haechan could have just been some sleep-deprivation induced hallucination. He was - he is too beautiful, too enigmatic, to be real. The conversation moves on, some test is coming up but Mark can't seem to focus. His mind wanders, he thought he could never forget Haechan, but the harder he tries, the more he seems to forget. He's dissolving again, breaking off into millions of pieces and scattering into the stale air of a high school cafeteria. _I hope I can become stars,_ Mark thinks distantly.

\--

That night, Mark goes to the clearing, it's become too much of a routine for him to stop now. As he's about to lie down, he notices a piece of paper, stuck to a tree. He plucks off the paper and reads it.

_Mark,_

_You know where I'm from, you always have. You like the stars, don't you?_

He drops the note and runs. It's the middle of the night and he's sprinting off into the forest, definitely a bad idea, but he can't really stop now. There's a hidden part of his mind, a part he didn't even know was there, that seems to be guiding his feet. He keeps running.

And running.

And running.

It feels like he's gone in a straight line, but when he finally stops, he's back at the clearing. But it's not. The trees are taller, the night is darker, and there aren't any stars, just one moon, an unnatural yellow hanging low in the sky.

"DONGHYUCK!" Mark shouts, the name came into his mind from nowhere, but he know's whose name it is. Haechan is Donghyuck, Donghyuck is Haechan. Mark feels two hands cover his eyes, and someone's breath against his ear.

"Hello, Minhyung."

The hands leave his eyes, he's still in the clearing, but it's day. The sun is out, he can see the green of the grass, and yet, he can see the stars, millions more than he can see at night, as if the sky is just made of stars. Mark turns around, and Donghyuck is there. He looks beautiful in the sun, his hair is lighter, and he looks happier.

"Is this where you're from?" Mark asks. Donghyuck nods, wrapping his arms around Mark's neck. He closes the distance between their lips and Mark's heart is trying to jump out of his chest again. A child of the Earth, and a child of the Stars, finally together.


End file.
